What causes obesity?
In scientific terms, obesity occurs when a person’s calorie intake exceeds the amount of energy he or she burns. What causes this imbalance between consuming and burning calories is unclear. Evidence suggests that obesity often has more than one cause. Genetic, environmental, psychological, and other factors all may play a part. Genetic Factors Obesity tends to run in families, suggesting that it may have a genetic cause. However, family members share not only genes but also diet and lifestyle habits that may contribute to obesity. Separating these lifestyle factors from genetic ones is often difficult. Still, growing evidence points to heredity as a strong determining factor of obesity. In one study of adults who were adopted as children, researchers found that the subjects’ adult weights were closer to their biological parents’ weights than their adoptive parents’. The environment provided by the adoptive family apparently had less influence on the development of obesity than the per
Although genes do have an effect on weight-related chemical processes in children, they cannot account for the sudden upsurge in childhood obesity, Causes of obseity or the rise in teenage obesity. Approximately one in five children in the US between the ages of 6 and 17 is overweight. This is twice the rate it was, 30 years ago. By contrast, changes in genes and DNA only occur over thousands of centuries.
In many ways, obesity is a puzzling disease. How the body regulates weight and body fat is not well understood. On one hand, the cause appears to be simple in that if a person consumes more calories than he or she expends as energy, then he or she will gain weight. However, the risk factors that determine obesity can be a complex combination of genetics, socioeconomic factors, metabolic factors, and lifestyle choices, as well as other factors. Some endocrine disorders, diseases, and medications may also exert a powerful influence on an individual’s weight. Factors which may influence the occurrence of obesity include, but are not limited to, the following: • genetics – Studies have shown that a predisposition toward obesity can be inherited. One study reported in 2004 found that 48 percent of children with overweight parents became overweight. Where a person carries weight – the hips or around the middle – is also strongly influenced by heredity. • metabolic factors – How a particular
Obesity means excess fat. The body stores excess energy in fat and obesity occurs when energy you take in exceeds the amount of energy burned. Obesity is not caused by a lack of willpower but is multifactorial.There is definitely a genetic component of obesity. Many people work in office settings, children stay inside and play video games and don’t live an active lifestyle. Being active is what burns energy. At the same time, the prevalence of fast food in the US has grown at alarming rates. This combination of the population becoming less active combined with easy access to fast foods with lots of calories and energy has led to an obesity epidemic.Our focus in obesity treatment is to reduce the caloric intake and increase exercise to help burn energy and fat. The metabolic rate can only be increased by improving the amount of muscle you have. Increased exercise leads to increased muscle.
A. Obesity results when there is an imbalance between energy intake and energy expenditure. In other words, you consume more calories than you expend in your daily activities. There can also be medical causes for obesity, such as glandular irregularities. Many glandular problems are now medically treatable.
